Police Struggle to Keep Tabs on 'Flash Mobs'

From:
Officer.com
By ERIC TUCKER and THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press
August 9, 2011


Rioters in London and elsewhere have been turning to Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools to stay one step ahead of the police.  Read more.


Comment: Twitter and Facebook are just the latest version of large groups using modern mobile technologies to do evil - something that started with the basic cellphone (example: Mankato State riot of 2006).  And unless response forces have at their disposal real time situational awareness tools like a Common Operating Picture (COP) (geospatial visualization) or a Blue Force Tracker system, they are at a distinct disadvantage when dealing with these types of situations because of the dynamic, fast moving nature of the events.  In addition, the inherent need to quickly introduce additional forces from outside the jurisdiction means many of the responders are without geographic knowledge of the place they are being brought in to protect.  Verbal communication via radios is simply not powerful enough to manage a situation like this - instead, highly mobile geospatial visualization systems are needed.
 

Taken to the extreme, when an incident like the rioting in London gets out of hand due to the lack of situational awareness on the part of law enforcement, taxpayers can be left with a hefty bill.  Indications from the London riots point toward 10's of millions of dollars in damage.  On the flip side, the city of Los Angeles, CA was forced to pay out over $13.0 million dollars to protesters over excessive use of force after police officers lost situational awareness (and control) of a gathering in MacArthur Park on May 1st, 2007.  The geospatial "ounce of prevention" for these types of losses, would have cost a whole lot less.

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Smartphones Expedite the Fighting of a Flood

From KansasCity.com
Posted on Monday, Jul. 25, 2011
By ALEESE KOPF


It will never replace a wall of sandbags, but Susan Abbott’s smartphone is turning out to be a pretty good tool for fighting the flooding of the Missouri River.
Part of Abbott’s job as a civil engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers is to spot weakening levees before they become disasters. That used to take hours: Snap a picture on a digital camera, note the location, drive back to corps offices, download the photo and file a written report.
 
Now, with her smartphone and an application, she can take a picture, tap in a note, sync her phone and send all the information to a database in a matter of seconds. That can cut the time between information gathering, analysis and action by 24 to 36 hours — and that can mean the difference between saving the day and seeing a levee fail.  Read More...


Comment: In the early 2000's, the Rock Isalnd, IL district of the Army Corps of Engineers developed the approach as described in the first paragraph above. One of the primary concerns of those geospatially referenced efforts that required a GPS, camera, field notes and data consolidation on a computer back at the office - was the damage borrowing animals were doing to the levees over time.  So its gratifing to see what was once a cumbersome process to track something mundane but important, has now been reduced to something as simple as using a smartphone.

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Groupon Tracks Mobile Users’ Locations—Even If Their Apps Aren’t Open

From Internet Retailer:


"Groupon Inc. knows where mobile consumers are—even if those consumers aren’t using the daily deal sites’ mobile app at that moment, according to the company’s new privacy policies. “if you use a Groupon mobile application and your mobile device’s settings allow it, we may collect mobile location information from your device. Our application may be designed to collect information even if you are not logged into the Groupon application or the sites,” reads the newest version of company’s policy."  Read more.


Comment: Here's another example of one of the multiple ways to track individuals in everyday life, yet the development of a national Common Operating Picture (COP) that would do the same thing in the emergency service sector remains an elusive goal.  Obviously, technology is not the issue.

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Quick Action Helps Google Win Friends in Japan

Click on the link below to read this article from the New York Times:

TECHNOLOGY   | July 11, 2011
Quick Action Helps Google Win Friends in Japan
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Through efforts like a Person Finder site and Street View recordings after the earthquake and tsunami, Google is finally winning over new friends in Japan.

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The Virtual World on Your Phone

Click on the link below to read the article from the New York Times:

N.Y. / REGION   | July 10, 2011
App City:  Bringing Past, Present and Future Into Focus
By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN
A few new apps will tell you what used to be nearby, or even what might have been nearby - less practical but often thoroughly satisfying experiences.

Comment: Imagine this technology intergrated into first responder helmet displays in a way that would allow them to view maps, floor plans, etc. during a response.  The Brits are ahead of us in thinking about this one: Go here.

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World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data

This is a must read article for anyone interested in importance of data sharing - geospatial or otherwise!

BUSINESS DAY   | July 03, 2011
World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data
By STEPHANIE STROM
Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank president, argues that its most valuable currency isn't money - it's information.

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Map Neighborhood Concerns with ArcGIS Explorer Online

ESRI has released a pretty slick application that can be used to crowd source response related information.


Go here: http://www.esri.com/news/arcwatch/0411/tip.html

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CrowdMapping the Chicago Blizzard

Interesting article on efforts to use social media to map the blizzards in Chicago.  Go here: http://blog.apps.chicagotribune.com/2011/02/09/crowdmapping-the-chicago-blizzard/

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